Archive for the ‘Improving your Life’ Category

I received this via Facebook the other day and it means a lot to me and hope it does to you too.

Listen to me for a day, an hour, a moment lest I expire in my terrible wilderness. My lonely silence! Oh God is there no one to listen.

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary had a Little lamb, His fleece as white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, The Lamb was sure to go. He followed her to school each day, Twasn’t even in the rule. He made the children laugh and play. to have a Lamb at school. And then the rules all changed one day, illegal it became: To bring the Lamb of God to school, Or even speak his Name. Everyday got worse and worse, And days turned into years. Instead of hearing children laugh, We heard gunshots and tears. What must we do to stop the crime, That’s in our schools today? Let’s let the lamb come back to school, And teach our kids to play!

If you agree please pass this one to every person you know..

Gray Lawrence

Love is the highest power we possess to be in complete harmony with the law of attraction. The more love we feel the greater our power. The more selfless love we feel, the more unfathomable our power. The law of attraction has been called the law of love, because the law itself is a gift of love to humanity. It is the law by which we can create incredible lives for ourselves. The more love we feel the greater our power to create a magnificent life of love, joy, and harmony. May the joy be with you, Rhonda Byrne

If I could share 500 words of wisdom to summarize what I’ve learned so far in life, these are the important things I’d want to pass along to others…

Like pursuing a career in the arts, building a small business is both incredibly rewarding and utterly terrifying. There are no next pay checks, severance packages, or safety nets for those of us who choose to go at it in the world of art or entrepreneurship. Everything is uncertain.

At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade this uncertainty for anything—the lessons I’ve picked up coping with it have helped me become a more peaceful and adaptable person in every sphere of my life. Whether you are working on an artist commune, on Wall Street, or anywhere in between, these tips can help you enrich your life and improve your performance where it counts.

First, live in peace with what you cannot change. I learned early on in my career that, according to some people, jewellery is not essential for life. Who knew! What this means is that when the economy stinks (and it certainly has had its low points over the last few decades!), our business suffers badly.

I used to go into a total panic every time the wave of a recession would affect us. I would do everything I could to turn the tide and perk things up again. Turns out one lone designer can’t fix the economy.

Over time, I’ve learned to ride the wave, rather than fighting it. Rolling with the punches—it’s amazing how much more you can do and how much happier you can be when you adapt rather than combat. Sure, slow business is a drag. At the end of the day, though, the economy goes up and the economy goes down–and so does life.

Instead of freaking out about something I can’t change, I’ve learned to use slower periods as times for revaluating, readjusting, and preparing to have the best ready for when things pick up again.

On that note, you have to keep reinventing yourself. In business and in art, I think that this is fairly clear. You won’t get anywhere if you don’t innovate. But what about in life? I think that reinvention is highly underrated. Reinvention isn’t about throwing everything away and starting from scratch. Reinvention is about constantly changing your approach to all aspects of your life so that when the time comes to sit down and take stock, you realize you’ve grown noticeably and significantly.

You have to change your approach constantly to keep making room for improvement! It keeps life fresh and gives you a chance to think critically about what parts of your life and your career are working and what parts can be improved.

Finally, embrace your successes. Be proud of your successes. Own up to your successes. Learn from your successes. But then go back and do the same for your failures. They are so important in helping you grow and flourish, in showing you the path to the life you want, and in having a few great stories to pass along to the kids.

For every smash hit success I’ve had, I had several that fell flat. At the end of the day, eliminating what didn’t work helped me find who I was. So, do not be embarrassed of failure. Do not hide it. Do not blow it out or proportion. Or minimize it, either. We all experience it. We all learn from it. At the end of the day, it makes us who we are.

Promise Yourself Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something in them. To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile. To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. Christian Daa Larson 1874-1954, New Thought Leader, Teacher, and Author

PMA Added…

It’s not your work to make anything happen. It’s your work to dream it and let it happen. Law of Attraction will make it happen. In your joy, you create something, and then you maintain your vibrational harmony with it, and the Universe must find a way to bring it about. That’s the promise of Law of Attraction.” Abraham-Hicks

WRITTEN by MARC CHERNOFF

The worst lies are the ones you tell yourself over and over again – the ones you live by. Perhaps someone close to you ingrained these lies in your mind, perhaps you were influenced by the negativity of popular media channels, or perhaps they grew from simple, innocent misunderstandings.

Either way, next time you decide to learn something new for the sake of self-improvement, start by unlearning a lie that has been deceiving you. Here are nine lies I have unlearned in my own life:

1. Happiness is about getting what you want.

There are two ways people try to find happiness. One is to continue to accumulate more and more of what they think they want. The other is to appreciate what they already have. The latter is the right path. Happiness isn’t about getting what you want; it’s about wanting what you’ve got. Happiness is not a goal, it’s a by-product of living well in each moment.

To be happy doesn’t mean you don’t desire more, it simply means you’re thankful for what you have and patient for what’s yet to come. Sometimes it’s easy to get so caught up in trying to accomplish something big, that you fail to notice the little things that give life its magic. So appreciate today for all it’s worth. Today is one of the good old days you’re going to miss in the years ahead.

2. Success looks a certain way.

You are not in this world to live up to everyone else’s expectations, nor should you feel that everyone else is here to live up to yours. You’ve got to pave your own distinct path. What success means to each of us is different. It’s about spending your life happily in your own way.

You have your own personal calling that’s as unique as your fingerprints. The best way to succeed is to discover this calling within you and then find a way to offer it to the world in the form of a beneficial service. Ultimately, if you can wake up every morning and do something that makes a positive difference, makes you proud, and makes you smile, before you get back to bed, you are a true success. (Angel and I discuss this process in the Success and Passion chapters of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

3. A busy day is a productive day.

“Work smarter, not harder” is one of the most common clichés in the personal development space. But like most clichés, few people actually do it. Go ahead and take a look around; the busy people outnumber the productive people by a wide margin. Perhaps you’re one of them.

Busyness seems impressive. It puts you in the heat of the action. It gives you an elevated sense of accomplishment. You’re always late for social engagements, barely have enough time for family get-togethers, and hardly get a moment to yourself. Emails and texts are shooting out of your smartphone like machinegun bullets, commitments and meetings fill up your entire calendar, and sleep is an afterthought. You’re like a rock star without a record.

Of course, it’s all just an illusion. A commitment to anything more than the essential is to work harder, not smarter. So flip it around and work smarter by putting first things first.

4. To be brave is to not be afraid.

Truth be told, the only time you can be brave is when you are afraid.

Being brave is when you do something, regardless of your fears, because you know it’s the right thing to do. In other words, you are afraid to do it because there are unknowns, but then you go ahead and do it anyway.

Whatever course you decide upon in life, there is always the possibility that something will go wrong. There will always be difficulties arising that tempt you to fear that you don’t have what it takes. To map out any course of action and follow it to an end requires bravery. (Read Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.)

5. To be strong is to not feel pain.

Life is often painful. It requires a worthy struggle for growth and experience. Anyone who says differently is selling a lie.

The strongest people are the ones who feel pain, accept it, learn from it, and fight through it. They turn their wounds into wisdom. It’s all about having the courage to take a break, to shed a tear, to dust yourself off, and then to get back in the ring to fight like you’ve never fought before.

6. Everyone around you is holding you back.

Many of us don’t genuinely want to be responsible for our own fate. Perhaps we daydream about “fulfilling our dreams,” but we leave those dreams firmly in the realm of fantasy. We don’t research them, talk to people about them, read related books, etc. Somehow we prefer the fantasy to the reality. And there’s nothing wrong with that, until we say that someone else is “holding us back”. That turns an idle fantasy into a barricade of lies.

The truth is, if you’re not working on something meaningful today, the only person holding you back is YOU. If you aren’t doing anything about your goals and dreams, you have no one to blame except yourself. Either you take responsibility for your life or someone else will. Blame is a scapegoat – it’s an easy way out of taking accountability for your own outcome. It’s a lot easier to point the finger at someone or something else instead of looking within.

When it comes to working hard to achieve a goal or dream – earning a degree, building a business, or any other personal achievement that takes time and commitment – one thing you have to ask yourself is: “Am I willing to live a few years of my life like many people won’t, so I can spend the rest of my life like many people can’t?”

7. You are automatically entitled to certain things from others.

People are sometimes led to have a sense of entitlement because they falsely believe they are owed something based on the social role they have chosen. For example, if someone has accepted the role of being someone’s friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife, they feel entitled to get certain favours from the other person. If someone has accepted the role of being a parent, they feel entitled to being respected by their children. If someone has accepted the role of being a consumer, they feel entitled to be served to their specific wishes.

Of course, these expectations of entitlement often go unfulfilled. Why? Because nothing in this world is promised. Regardless of your chosen role in all your relationships and walks of life, you don’t automatically get any more than you openly communicate, negotiate, and work for. (Read The Road Less Traveled.)

8. You will feel comfortable when the time is right.

So many of us complain about the boring repetition present in our daily routines, yet we choose no clear course for correction. We want to change something, but we never think the time is right. Why? Because the very source of our boredom also provides a solid foundation of comfort. We are comfortable with our current surroundings. Steering off the known track is risky, and we are subconsciously scared of what might happen if we do.

So, what happens when we stick to the current track? Nothing. We jog along the same circular track at a steady pace daily. We pass by the same mile marker at the exact moment we did yesterday, and the day before, and the week before that. There is not a worry on our minds because we already know the terrain that lies ahead.

If something makes you a bit nervous and uncomfortable, it means you’re doing it right and growing. All great opportunities in life will force you to grow emotionally and intellectually. They force you to stretch yourself and your comfort zone, which means you won’t feel totally comfortable at first. And when you don’t feel comfortable, you will likely assume the timing isn’t right, even though it is.

9. It’s already too late.

Nothing is too late until your tired heart stops beating.

If you’re reading this right now, congratulations, you are alive, which means it’s not too late for you.

Things can change if you want them to, at any age. Right now you can choose differently and make something new happen. Your future is immediate. Grab on to it with both hands and keep on moving on. When you come up on a roadblock and are faced with the choice of sitting down and doing nothing or doing something to make further progress, choose the latter. Think, work, and climb if you have to.

Move your life forward.

The floor is yours…

What self-defeating lies do people often tell themselves? What’s one self-defeating lie you once believed was true?

Giving opens up the door to receiving. You have so many opportunities to give every day.

Give kind words. Give a smile. Give appreciation and love. Give compliments. You can give courtesy to other motorists while you are driving. You can give a smile to the car parking attendant. You can give a warm greeting to the newspaper stand person or the person who makes your coffee. You can give by allowing a stranger to go ahead of you into an elevator, and you can give by asking which floor they are going to and pressing the button for them. If someone drops something you can give a helping hand and pick it up for them. You can give warm embraces to those you love. And you can give appreciation and encouragement to everyone. There are so many opportunities for you to give and thereby open the door to receiving. May the joy be with you, Rhonda Byrne

"Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned or worn. It is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude." Denis Waitley

It’s completely normal to feel out of control when something goes wrong in your life. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that it’s not normal to feel completely at peace when something unfortunate happens. But even though it feels like all the hard work you’ve put in, all the sacrifices you’ve made, and all the life you’ve lived has done nothing to prevent you from experiencing tragedy, there is always hope for those who are willing to fight to

"When we feel significant emotional highs and happiness for what we have in our lives, we effectively send out a signal to the universe that we want more of what we are experiencing." Dr. Steve G. Jones

take control of their lives once again with hope for a better day.

If you’ve been struggling with the difficulties of life, it’s time to open your mind to a few new ideas that will help you take control of your life, fill your life with positive energy, and help you recover from your negative experiences, one day at a time.

Bad things can happen in the blink of an eye or they can occur progressively over a long period of time. One moment you are happily smiling at your fortune and everything good in your life, and the next moment something unexpected happens and you wonder how you are going to pick up the pieces of your life that have been left behind by a devastating series of events.

"The reason why it is so important to be in control of your thoughts is because your thoughts shape who you are and your perspective on life." Frank Mangano

It’s completely normal to feel out of control when something goes wrong in your life. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that it’s not normal to feel completely at peace when something unfortunate happens. But even though it feels like all the hard work you’ve put in, all the sacrifices you’ve made, and all the life you’ve lived has done nothing to prevent you from experiencing tragedy, there is always hope for those who are willing to fight to take control of their lives once again with hope for a better day.

If you’ve been struggling with the difficulties of life, it’s time to open your mind to a few new ideas that will help you take control of your life, fill your life with positive energy, and help you recover from your negative experiences, one day at a time.

Make it a Priority to Serve Others

It seems like every time something bad happens in my life, everyone tells me to forget about myself and go find someone else that needs my help. When I first began trying this technique, I felt frustrated, sorry for myself, and absolutely no motivation to lift others burdens when my life seemed so horrible. Over time my opinion changed, and now I look forward to helping others whenever I get the chance, especially if I’m in the middle of a rough patch in my life. There is just something about helping others that seems to take your problems away. You begin to focus more on loving others, and less on your own misfortunes.

Learn What the Universe Has in Store For You

Whether we want to admit it or not, there are bigger forces at play in the Universe than just ourselves. Sometimes you may not think experiencing a natural disaster, the death of a loved one, or prolonged unemployment will provide you with any benefit at all, but it’s entirely possible that the Universe is preparing you for something much bigger, a greater life responsibility than even you can comprehend at this point in time. If you think that’s the case, try to find out what that purpose and responsibility is, and seek after it.

Enjoy the Adventure of Your Life

Despite what others may believe, there is no reason to fear the future. If you look at life as one big adventure, you’ll realize that life will provide you with twists and turns that you won’t expect—some of them will be happy, and others might be sad, but that’s the best part of living. If you knew everything would always work out the way you want it to, you would get bored of your life. The greatest joy I’ve experienced in life is triumphing when all the odds were stacked against me and I was facing great adversity. It made achieving my dreams and goals all the sweeter, because I alone knew what I had to overcome to get where I wanted to be. The same will be true of you if you enjoy the ride of life, with all of its speed bumps and stop lights.

"Whatever it is you are achieving vibrational harmony with is what you are living. If you ever want to know what the vibrational content of your outpouring is, just look at the manifesting around you, because the manifesting around you is always a perfect vibrational match to the vibration that is dominant within you." Abraham Hicks